I feel like most Americans know about Texas Roadhouse but I surprisingly have never actually eaten there. However, even I know about their rolls.
When a restaurant becomes almost as famous for the basket of warm bread that hits the table as it is for the actual meal, that says something.
I understand because I grew up with bread at the dinner table every single night. It almost didn’t matter what was being served, there was going to be bread also. Put something warm, soft and buttery on the table and there’s a very real chance I’m going to ruin my appetite before dinner arrives. It’s the hardest test of willpower ever.
“Soft” can mean surprisingly different things when you start making bread yourself. There’s the pillowy, pull-apart softness of a classic dinner roll, and then there’s something like an Olive Garden breadstick, which is still soft and fluffy but has a little more structure and chew when you tear into it. Who knew dinner rolls could be so nuanced?
There are a lot of reasons for those differences and many ways to tweak recipes toward your preferred roll, but flour is one of the easiest places to start. All-purpose and bread flour can both make excellent dinner rolls, in my opinion. The biggest difference is protein content, which affects gluten development and ultimately how tall, tender or chewy the rolls become.
So, if you’ve ever wondered on which is the best flour for dinner rolls; whether swapping bread flour for all-purpose will make your dinner rolls better, the answer really depends on what you mean by better.
Why protein matters in dinner rolls
When flour is mixed with liquid, two proteins in the wheat, glutenin and gliadin, begin forming gluten. Say that ten times fast. Gluten creates the stretchy network that allows bread dough to trap the carbon dioxide produced by yeast.
Generally speaking, higher-protein flour has more potential to develop a strong gluten network. That strength helps dough trap gas as it proofs and bakes, which can give bread more rise, structure and chew.
For a baguette or pizza crust, that can be exactly what you want. Dinner rolls are a little different. Unless you are making garlic knots, a staple of New York and New Jersey pizzerias. Those are super chewy versions of a knotted dinner roll made of pizza dough.
Most dinner roll recipes are enriched with ingredients like milk, butter, sugar and eggs. In this case, we aren’t necessarily looking for a substantial chew or crisp crust. We usually want enough gluten for the rolls to rise beautifully while keeping the crumb soft enough to easily pull apart at the table.
That’s why both all-purpose and bread flour work but give you slightly different results.
All-purpose flour: best for soft, tender rolls
For the classic pillowy dinner roll, all-purpose flour is usually my first choice.
I grew up with my mom using Gold Medal brand AP flour but personally I like to use Bob’s Red Mill white AP flour when making my dinner rolls. I find it to be the most reliable and I appreciate Bob’s transparency with their customers which makes me feel better knowing exactly where my family’s food is coming from. Bob’s AP flour falls around 10–12% protein, and that’s typically enough protein to develop the gluten needed for a yeast dough while still lending itself to the softer and tender texture I associate with a classic dinner roll.
My family made the Pillsbury biscuits from the tin can every Thanksgiving when I was growing up. They’re obviously biscuits, not yeast rolls, so we’re talking about two different types of bread. But that familiar fluffy, soft texture is still what comes to mind when I’m trying to explain the tender end of the spectrum versus the garlic knot visual at the other end.
You pull one apart and it tears easily. There isn’t much resistance or chew. A yeast roll made with all-purpose flour won’t have the flaky texture of a biscuit, but it can lean more toward that soft, delicate eating experience than a higher-protein bread flour will.
For Thanksgiving or another big holiday meal, that’s usually what I want. There’s already plenty happening on the plate. Give me something fluffy and buttery that I can pull apart and use to swipe up whatever gravy is left behind.
Bread flour: best for more height and chew
On the flip side of the dinner roll texture spectrum, we have bread flour.
I’ve experimented a lot with different brands in this bread flour category and always wind up preferring King Arthur Bread Flour or Bob’s Red Mill artisan bread flour. The Bob’s has about 13% protein, which is only 1% more than the King Arthur, but for that reason my brain chooses Bob’s every time. Does it make a noticeable difference? Honestly, I don’t know, but when you combine the 1% higher protein percentage with the fact that I already prefer Bob’s AP flour then it just becomes easier for me to use the brand for both flours. The higher protein in bread flour will typically result in a taller roll with a little more structure and chew.
This is where the Olive Garden breadstick comparison is helpful. Those breadsticks are still soft, that’s part of their appeal, but when you tear into one, there’s more pull and bread-like structure than you get from something extremely tender.
It doesn’t mean your rolls suddenly turn into baguettes because you grabbed bread flour. We’re talking about relatively subtle differences. But if you bake the same enriched roll recipe with AP and bread flour, I’d expect the bread-flour version to lean somewhat taller, springier and chewier.
That can be an advantage, especially if you like your dinner rolls with a little more bite or plan on turning the leftovers into mini sandwiches the next day like I do.
Can you use bread flour and still make soft rolls?
Absolutely. Flour isn’t working alone. Butter adds fat and tenderness, milk contributes richness and helps create a softer crumb, eggs can add structure and flavor and sugar adds sweetness and helps the bread retain moisture.
These ingredients can balance some of the strength you get from a higher-protein flour. So, if you like the height and structure bread flour gives you but still want a soft roll, don’t rule it out because tweaking the additives can give you both.
Or just use both…
Using a combination of all-purpose and bread flour can give you some of the extra structure of bread flour while maintaining more of the tenderness you get from AP.
If you’re curious, a 50/50 blend is an easy place to start. From there, you can adjust based on what you liked about the finished rolls. More AP will generally tip the scales toward more tenderness; more bread flour will push you toward more structure and chew.
What about whole wheat flour?
Whole wheat can work in dinner rolls, too, but for this you need to expect a more noticeable change in both flavor and texture.
Whole wheat flour contains the bran, germ and endosperm of the wheat kernel, providing more fiber and nutrients. In terms of bread making, though, the bran can interfere with gluten development, and whole-grain flour also absorbs more liquid than white flour. So it’s not necessarily a safe 1-for-1 swap with AP flour. If you choose to do that, you will get a heartier and much denser roll.
If you want some of that nutty whole-wheat flavor without sacrificing the soft texture of a holiday roll, I’d start by replacing only a portion of the white flour rather than all of it and play with percentages to find your perfect texture, with the added fiber benefit.
How to keep dinner rolls soft
No matter which flour you choose, technique can make or break a soft dinner roll.
One of the biggest mistakes is adding too much flour. Dinner-roll dough can be softer and stickier than people expect, and it’s tempting to keep throwing flour at it until it becomes completely dry and easy to handle. Resist the urge. Too much flour can leave you with a denser, drier roll. I’d rather deal with a slightly tacky dough.
The same goes for proofing. Use the recipe’s timing as a guide, but pay attention to the dough itself. Yeast doesn’t know your recipe says “rise for one hour.” The temperature of your kitchen can make that happen faster or slower.
And once the rolls are in the oven, don’t overbake them in pursuit of a dark crust. Pulling them once they’re properly baked helps preserve that soft interior.
A brush of melted butter while they’re still warm doesn’t hurt, either. Besides adding flavor, it keeps the tops soft, which, if we’re making holiday dinner rolls, is a very important factor. Just don’t brush with butter until they are out of the oven. Butter burns extremely quickly and you don’t want that burnt butter smell to ruin your finished product.
So, in the end is all-purpose or bread flour better for dinner rolls?
For the soft, fluffy rolls I want sitting on my Thanksgiving table, I’m reaching for Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour. It has enough protein to support a beautifully risen yeast dough without pushing the texture as far toward chewiness as bread flour. That balance makes sense for the kind of pull-apart dinner roll I personally love.
If you want your rolls taller, springier and a little chewier, Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour makes more sense. And if your ideal roll falls somewhere between the two, try blending them.
There isn’t one universally perfect texture. Once you know whether your perfect dinner roll is tender and delicate or taller with a little more chew, choosing the flour becomes a whole lot easier.
